


Day 310

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [310]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27424645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [310]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 2





	Day 310

Gomes watched as his body moved through the tunnels of Darktown, carrying a load of rubble and earth to a gong pit for disposal. He had been counting the days since his capture. Twenty-six: almost a month. A month where Iris and Sunna would be left alone not knowing where he had gone. Would they think he had abandoned them? Would they think he had decided providing for a family was too much work and left to make it on their own?

He had almost done so before. Three years ago when Sunna had been at her worst. They didn’t know it at the time but anything with grain in it made Sunna very ill and irritable. Iris had to deal with the worst of it while Gomes was working long hours. He would arrive home at the end of long days, tired and just wanting to sleep but there was always more to do. Iris didn’t have time to care for Sunna and care for the home so Gomes was left to watch over Sunna while Iris did a day’s worth of housework in a few hours. She had been a holy terror then, throwing things and screaming nonstop and, occasionally, just shitting everywhere without warning.

Gomes had started going to the taverns after work, just an hour or so at first, for a bit of peace before having to return home. He would claim to be working late, and Iris had believed him at first, then he started staying later and later. After the first time he had spent the entire night at the tavern, Iris had finally confronted him. Accusing him of leaving her to do all the work while he spent his nights galivanting around the city, as if he didn't work hard all day. As if his work didn’t leave him in a constant state of pain that became his new normal.

The next night he stayed in the tavern all night and went straight to work without going home… and the night after that. On the third day a guard had tracked him down after Iris had reported him missing. The guard had dragged him home and he was, to this day, grateful that she had. Their home had been a complete disaster, Iris looked nearly dead with worry and Sunna had smashed or broken nearly everything that was breakable in the home. As miserable as he was, he still loved his family and he saw what they would be without him. After that, he had sworn off drinking, despite how much it helped with the pain, and they had taken Sunna to some of the more, unconventional healers. One had offered a diet of steamed vegetables and, to Gomes’s great surprise, it had worked. Within a week she had calmed down and started behaving like a normal child. Slowly they had added things to her diet until they found out what did and didn’t work.

Gomes had stayed sober and done what he could to provide for his daily life ever since but Iris was never the same. She only ever asked for help when she was truly desperate, afraid that she might drive him away again. He tried to reassure her that he wouldn’t, but actions were the measure of a man, as his father used to say, and he knew she would never be free from that fear.

As his legs carried him back to the dig site he wondered if anyone was still looking for him. Had Iris given up on hoping he would return? They never told Sunna why he was gone for those days but she did seem anxious to prove to him that she could be well behaved. Would she think it was her fault he was gone? After all she had done, the amazing wheel she had made.

He had to get back to them. If only he could take control of his body back.


End file.
